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As Cafemutual completes 13 years of our website cafemutual.com, let me share the struggle and uncertainty which marked our pre-launch days.
The idea to launch a B2B web site for mutual fund professionals first struck me in July 2009. To test whether my idea was doable, I started meeting mutual fund distributors (or IFAs as they used to be known then).
My timing was bad. Upfront commissions had been banned, markets were in doldrums following the 2008 crash and the mood among both the manufacturers and distributors was downbeat. Well-meaning folks were puzzled by my enthusiasm and tried to caution me. But I was in too deep with my idea and like the bravado of the foolish and naïve, I decided to take the plunge.
I opened an office and to give it a ‘busy’ look, I hired 4 summer interns from a business school. Next, came my biggest challenge, hiring people. I advertised online and in print, passed the word around, met a few people using my network but alas, it seems no one was willing to join me. A couple of people accepted my offer and leveraged it to get better offers! After much struggle, I managed to hire two relatively senior folks who too got back to more secure jobs with one of them even telling me that his marriage prospects would be affected by continuing in a start-up like mine.
Then magic happened. A young boy, Ravi Samalad, barely 22 years old walked into my office. He understood exactly what I wanted and what was even more surprising was willing to work at one-tenth cost of the seniors that I hired. He got down to the task of creating content in right earnest, producing interesting and relevant articles for the site! And thus was born our first product.
A few weeks later, an experienced print media professional walked in for an interview. I gave up on her once I found out her last salary but persisted with the interview only because I did not want her to know that I could not afford her salary. Then magic happened again when she called me up to follow up on the interview. I shared my constraints regarding the salary and imagine my surprise, when she decided to take up the job at a reduced salary in exchange for the promise that I would set things right once we were profitable. Fair enough, I said. And thus was born a business as she quickly came up with a plan to monetize our product. She was instrumental in getting revenues and drumming up new business ideas. Those of you who know Cafemutual will guess the name right away – yes, she is Anita Sutrave.
Over the next 13 years, our mission of providing news, knowledge and insights to the mutual fund eco-system in general and the MF distribution community evolved to include conferences, training, books and investor awareness programs. All this happened because this magic kept repeating. Again, and again. For which I am immensely grateful.
These 13 years can be defined as a kaleidoscope of happy and best memories of my life, new friendships and relationships. I have found my new friends in terms of my teammates who have worked day and night in our mission of adding value to the lives of distributors. I am lucky to have such a fantastic team of dedicated and smart colleagues. Anita, Nishant, Dipti, Fouzia, Vartika, Poonam, Karishma, Riddhima, Muzammil, Deepak.
